The Beginning of the End
by Kioui
Summary: Goes along with Deathly Hallows; an alternate version of Snape's last days, and why it had to end that way.
1. Chapter 1

_I own nothing of the Harry Potter universe, and am only borrowing it and its residents with respect and gratitude for the gift it is. I've thrown in an original character or two, but that and the plot are all that's mine. Thanks, Jo!_

_The Beginning of the End_

Albus Dumbledore's spindly instruments still cluttered tables around the headmaster's office of Hogwarts. His portrait, directly behind the heavy oak desk, occasionally still offered quiet advice, muttering encouragement or issuing warnings or gentle rebukes, but went largely unnoticed in these last few days. Things were out of control, and spiraling quickly, wildly, toward the inevitable confrontation. The very air was heavy with tension and malevolence, and he knew he was going to be sucked under, once and for all, very soon.

Sitting uncomfortably straight behind the headmaster's desk, Severus Snape raised his wand to his temple and pulled away several strands of silvery thought, placing them in the pensive in front of him. As they swirled in the dark liquid like heavy metals, he allowed a half smile to arise before he gave in to his final act of self-preservation, and allowed himself to review his memories, and regain his strength for what was to come.

_March 1969_

It was the house he grew up in; dark, dank and filled with the sickening scent of mold. He glanced around, noticing the absolute lack of anything cheerful in the room. A desk, every inch covered with papers, books and ink stains, was in the corner, and on a bed covered with a dirty quilt lay a pale boy in rumpled clothing, his nose in a book. A sudden pang of resentment hit him, which he swiftly set aside at the sound of a voice from his past.

"Severus! Come watch what I can do!"

The nine year old Severus on the bed sighed heavily, allowing the book he was reading to fall heavily and dramatically against his chest at his six year old sister's call. "I'm reading!"

Around the corner of the door the top of her head came into view, her bright, dark eyes shining happily as she looked in on him. "Oh, Severus, come look. Please!"

"You are nothing but a nuisance," he said to her, playfully weary, completely without menace. "I suppose you won't shut up until I come."

"Not a chance," she replied, the smile in her voice as clear in his mind as it ever was on her lips. "So come on."

The two Snape children, both identically dark haired and dark eyed but one tall, thin and sickly looking, the other small, delicate and beautiful, walked hand in hand out the back door of their house, silently creeping past their mother, who wept as she stirred a pot on their outdated stove. In the small and miserable garden, withered plants in broken pots lay scattered across the brick patio. They walked out the back gate and the small girl pulled her brother along behind her by the hand, into the cluster of trees that separated their house from the neighborhood's shared playground. A collection of various items was gathered on the ground at the base of a large tree; a dead sparrow, an uprooted geranium plant and a neat pile of leaves were stacked side by side, and the girl sat in front of them without ceremony or explanation. Severus, frowning, sat beside her and watched without question.

"I know we're supposed to use wands, but I don't get one for … how many years?"

"Five more, of course. I'll let you use mine, though, when I get one."

"I wish Father hadn't broken Mother's."

Severus smirked and nudged her. "She'd never let you use it."

"Let? Hadn't thought about asking her for it. Might have nicked it, though."

"Where did you hear a term like that, Persephone? Sounds very … muggle. I wish Father hadn't insisted on sending you to school with those people."

Persephone glanced up at him, matching his smirk with her own. "Ah, they aren't so bad, really. No wands, though."

"Silly thing. Show me your tricks, and let me go back to my book," he said, not really wanting to leave her company.

Her smirk transformed into a smile and she nodded solemnly, putting her hands out in front of her and closing her eyes. Within seconds, the broken feathers on the bird's body began mending and the emaciated form to fill out, and the sparrow's eyes fluttered open. The geranium roots began to plump and stretch toward the ground, easing into the soil and slowly beginning to upright the plant. The girl opened her eyes slightly and gestured slightly at the leaves, which turned immediately from dried brown fragments into full, green foliage and began to spread along the ground.

Severus sat silently beside his sister, trying to decipher the meaning behind this ability. Certainly she was a talented, precocious child, but to consciously control her abilities and willfully redirect life back into these things meant that she was more talented than he had suspected, and perhaps more talented than he himself. Instead of being jealous, as was his nature, he felt suddenly afraid for her, afraid that their father would find out, and punish her, just for being what she was: a witch.

"I was thinking, Sev," she said to him, softly, without looking at her brother, "that the next time Father gets angry, I can help you. I can keep him from hurting you, I think – "

"No! You can't!" he snapped, far more viciously than he'd intended. "Persephone, if he knew you could do this, if Mother knew, they'd be more afraid of you than they are of me. I'll take what he dishes out – but we have to keep you a secret, remember? Don't help me. Promise."

Still not looking at him, she shook her head. "I'll have to help you, Sev. I saw it. And he won't be able to hurt me, not the way he hurts you. I don't think the man would let him."

"What man, Seph?"

"The skeleton man, of course."

This was not new to their conversations. Since she was able to talk, Persephone had chatted to a man only she could see, a skeleton in a black cloak. One night as they lay side by side under his bed one evening while their father raged drunkenly at their mother, she had explained, "he isn't exactly a skeleton … just more like a man who forgot to put on his skin. He isn't scary. He tries to be funny, but he isn't very good at it." He had encouraged her to keep quiet, but she would being talking to someone only she could see during meals, or while playing, or even in her sleep, and there was no stopping her. It was, their father thought in an extraordinarily rare parental burst of gentleness, the wizard equivalent of an imaginary friend to which he paid little attention other than to think it somehow charmingly normal and unmagical. Their mother, however, knew enough that wizarding children rarely had to invent imaginary friends, and that those who saw them at young ages tended to be rare, and troublesome. As soon as Severus began to believe there was something more to it than an avid imagination, he had managed to convince her that their father might turn his anger on her if he guessed that she was a witch, and having seen enough of his rampages, she finally gave in to his pleas and stopped talking aloud when her parents were close by. Severus had encouraged her to tell him all her secrets, to make him her only ally, her sole comfort and protector, and to allow their mother to sink into her despair alone. The girl, young though she was, had understood his reasoning and had willingly placed her full confidence in her older brother. In almost all situations, it was to him she looked for direction and guidance, it was to him she went for comforting when she fell or when other children were cruel, it was her brother who, in her eyes, made the sun come up in the morning to greet her and who put it to bed alongside her at night. And in all his miserable, short life, he had one glimpse of joy, and it was in his sister's pure and unwavering devotion, and in his to her.

"Never mind the skeleton man, Seph. I want you to promise that you won't try to help me with Father. Swear it."

"Oh, it was just a dream, I guess." Her smile had faded into the solemn, thoughtful look than seemed to be her only alternative. She was a child who never appeared sad or angry, only brightly cheerful and happy, or pensive and lost in thoughts that were far too big for her age. She stood abruptly and turned away from him, saying quietly, "I just wanted you to know."

She started to walk away but he reached out and took her hand. "Tell me you won't try to help me. It's really important for you to stay safe. Promise!"

"Why isn't it important that you stay safe? Who will love me if something happens to you?"

To this he had no answer and he shook his head desperately, trying to think of a reply that would sway her once and for all. "I can take care of me, Seph. And nothing is ever going to happen to me that is going to keep me from loving you and taking care of you."

For once a hint of disbelief and sadness flickered in her dark eyes as she tilted her head and smiled at him. "One day, it will. Not for always, but for a while. But it's okay, Sev, you come back. And I'll help you when I can."

"You saw it?"

She nodded.

"Sometimes it isn't real, what you see. Sometimes it's just a dream."

She raised an eyebrow. "Like the skeleton man."

"Yes."

She smirked, and the Snape watching the scene was startled to realize how familiar the expression on her face was – and how it mirrored the expression he so often wore. "But he is real, you know. He talks to me, and sometimes he sings to me. He has a funny voice. If he weren't real, he wouldn't have such a funny voice. I couldn't think of that voice. And he doesn't lie to me, I'd know. He told me to help you if I could, and that I would be able to save you one day. But I can't see that far, it makes my brain hurt."

Young Snape nodded. "There. You see? One day you can help me, but not yet. Not while you're so small, okay? It will make it harder for me to protect you, if they know how strong you are. It will make them angrier. When you're big."

"Like you?"

"No, not like me. Bigger. When you're able to go to Hogwarts. That big. But you wait until then, yes?"

Reluctantly she nodded. "When I'm big."


	2. Chapter 2

The Evans Girl – September 1970

"Severus!"

The scene changed, and Snape was again watching from a corner of his old bedroom, where the desk had become more cluttered and the wallpaper seemed to be more dingy than before. Persephone stood in his doorway, a little older now, but not much, dressed in a plain sack-like black dress that almost reached her ankles, her dark hair in two braids that she'd stuck little leaves into. He walked toward her and bent down toward the child, looking at her closely and noticing that the leaves were actually spreading slowly, gradually twisting through his sister's hair. A slow smile spread over his face and he resisted the urge to laugh. As he reached out to touch her, she stepped into the room past him and said to his younger counterpart, "There's …" she stopped abruptly and looked around before lowering her voice conspiratorially and whispering, "another witch in our neighborhood!"

From behind him near the window a young voice asked, "What?"

"Another witch!" she mouthed, not wanting anyone to overhear her. He crossed the room and shut the door quietly behind them. "She's … I think she's muggleborn. There are two of them, two girls, I mean, she has a sister, I think, but she seems to be useless."

Young Severus tilted his head as he listened to his sister. "The witch?"

"No, the sister!"

"Oh. Where did you see her?"

Persephone hesitated. "Well, I _saw_ her, I didn't see her."

Severus raised one eyebrow and tilted his head slightly to one side. "I never know what that means."

The girl sighed. "Of course you do. I mean, I _saw_ her in my head."

He sighed in response, rolling his eyes for effect and sitting down at his desk. "Then how do you know she's in our neighborhood?"

Persephone smiled serenely, the look of utter, blind confidence. "They were at the playground."

He snorted. "Well, how do you know it's our playground?"

Finally irritated, she snapped, "I don't know, I just know! How do you know which of those leaves are bad and which aren't? You know!"

With infinite smugness he replied, "I know because they all have different identifying marks, you goof."

"Well, our playground has four swings and a slide and tires to run through and bars, and a cluster of bushes and a patch of trees with a little hole at the top that you can see the sun through. And the sisters, they were swinging. They _are_ swinging."

"Okay, that sounds like our playground, but …"

Persephone sighed heavily and took his hand. "Come on! It's important that you meet that witch."

"Why?"

Persephone shrugged in a way that was at once amused with and totally exasperated by her brother. "I don't know why, maybe you're going to _marry_ her and become Minister of Magic."

Severus glanced at his sister uneasily. "Am I?"

Persephone laughed. "I don't think so! I'm six, what do you want?"

"You are _extremely_ annoying," he said, patting her on the head absent-mindedly and standing to his feet. "I'm going to go check it out, then."

"No, no, no!"

Severus stopped before he reached the door. "What now?"

"Muggle clothes!"

"You said she was a witch!"

"Well, she is, but … her sister isn't, and I don't think she's used to us. Muggle born?"

He nodded briefly and stared through the older Snape, at a small dresser in the corner. "What do muggles wear?"

Persephone squinted and looked around the room, deep in thought. "Father wears suits."

"I don't have a suit."

They sat in silence, each glancing around the room as if someone were going to walk in with a new set of clothes, completely suitable for the occasion.

"What do the children wear in your class?"

"Oh. We all wear the same thing, you know what I wear. But boys don't wear skirts. They wear pants, of course. And ties! And … blouses!"

"That sounds … complicated. I'm going like this."

Persephone scowled and seemed to consider his apparel. "Just go."

"You aren't coming?"

"Mother put that tracking charm on me, remember? Can't."

The tracking charm had been implemented after Persephone had gone missing one recent afternoon on her way home from school. Their furious mother had spent three hours scouring the neighborhood for her, alongside a terrified Severus. When they had found her, at home eating a scone with pomegranate jelly, she would not satisfactorily answer their mother on where she had been, or with whom. Severus tried to ask her when they were alone but she only told him that she had things to do, and that she had been perfectly safe, and didn't pomegranate jelly taste especially good? Severus had been reading through all of the books he could find on how to get around that particular piece of their mother's magic but had not yet found it. He was going alone.

The adult Snape walked through memories, passing by Lily on the playground, and his mother's furious nightly inquisitions of Persephone, who was completely unmovable, to a day about a year later. As he approached the small hill closeted by a grove of trees, he immediately recognized the red hair of Lily Evans, and noted with a mixture of amusement and embarrassment that his younger self was leaning extremely close to her without actually touching her. A book was in front of them, and Lily was turning the pages while Severus watched her, smiling as she exclaimed over each illustration, marveling over the moving figures. From out of another cluster of trees he heard Persephone laughing, chattering, and as she walked into the clearing where he and Lily sat he noticed that she was alone.

"Hello, Severus!" she said cheerfully, sitting down across from her brother and his friend and offering her hand in greeting to Lily. As Lily glanced at Severus and grinned at him, she shook Persephone's hand and did not catch the slight crease of the girl's brow as their hands met.

"Lily, this annoying creature is my sister."

Persephone pulled her hand away discretely, recovering her smile and saying with certainty, "You're Lily Evans, of course. Severus …" she paused, glancing at her brother, who was shaking his head in a very subtle but clear manner, "has mentioned you. "

Lily smiled and nodded. "And you're Persephone, right? Like the goddess of the underworld?"

Both Snape siblings said together, "The who?"

"You didn't know? Oh, yes. Persephone was the queen of the underworld. She ruled ghosts and carried out curses. She was picking flowers one day and Hades, he was the King of the Underworld, he took her away to live with him and to rule with him. Her mother was the goddess of the harvest and when her daughter was taken, she was so sad that crops stopped growing and the whole world would've died if Zeus hadn't stepped in. He made Hades give Persephone back to her mother, but he tricked her into eating a pomegranate and she had to spend part of the year with him, and that's why things don't grow in the winter – because her mother is sad and Persephone is in the underworld."

The two dark haired Snapes each tilted their heads at almost identical angles and spoke at the same time.

"Ruling the ghosts," Persephone said, disbelievingly.

"Pomegranate?" asked Severus, as if a heavy realization was dawning on him.

Persephone visibly shuddered. "Don't know that I'd like that much," she said, disdain clearly evident in her voice. "Ghosts aren't very interesting."

Forgetting his train of thought for a moment, Severus asked, "And you've met a lot of ghosts, have you?" It was difficult to tell from his tone if he was teasing her or asking an earnest question.

"Oh, a couple, here or there, not ghosts so much as …." Suddenly she stopped and grinned at them both. "The curses, though, that might be interesting. Think people go around cursing each other all the time, or just once in a while? I wonder if that would keep you very busy, or if you'd have time for a hobby?"

Severus rolled his eyes. "Are you thinking of applying for the job?"

Persephone laughed. "I'm seven, too young to be queen!"

Lily smiled, pleased that her story seemed to interest both of her conversation partners at the same time.

Persephone glanced at Severus. "Seems sort of daft, really. Why would they name me after someone who got carted off to the underworld? Mother would be perfectly happy if someone carted me off, I think. As long as they left a note. "Took your daughter. See you in spring. Sincerely, King of the Underworld."

Lily grinned again. "Does seem a little strange. But why would my parents name me after a flower?"

"Well, flowers are pretty, and you're pretty. I like your hair."

Severus leaned closer to Lily, daring to take a lock of her long red hair in his hand, lifting it to his nose and inhaling. "It smells like flowers, too. Muggles bathe in flowers, apparently."

Lily nudged him, grinning, and said to Persephone, "You're pretty, too. I wish I had curls like you, they're so perfect and springy looking."

Persephone glanced down at her dark hair and took a curl in her hand, bouncing it against the palm of her other hand. "Springy! I like my curls. But red is much better."

Persephone turned suddenly, looking back toward the trees she'd emerged from. "I have to go, but it was nice meeting you." She stood and offered her hand to her brother, who took it for a moment and released it in a strange, mutual show of affection, and then ran off again toward the trees, leaving Severus and Lily sitting alone together once again.

"I like your sister. She's very odd, for a little girl, isn't she? I mean, she doesn't really talk like a little girl."

Severus shrugged his shoulders. "She is. Odd, I mean. She's … a seer. I don't think she really spends all her time in this world, if you know what I mean. She has her own world, in her head."

Lily smiled and patted his hand, causing his cheeks to redden slightly. "You really like her, though. You seem happier when she's around."

"Is that weird?"

Lily shook her head solemnly. "No. I think it's wonderful, actually. I worry about you, about your father and mother. I'm glad you have her as a sister. I wish my sister loved me. It would be nice to have a friend living in your house with you."

"It helps. But your sister had better leave her alone, though. I won't have her hurting Persephone."

Lily frowned. "I won't let her do anything to her. Like I said, I like your sister."

Severus nodded, relaxing. "Don't say anything about her, please. Our father – well, our mother, too, they'd be frightened of her."

Lily laughed uncertainly. "Afraid, of your sister? But why?"

"Just promise."

The scene faded, and the adult Severus glanced around, watching as the small dining room of their home came into focus, and the sounds of screaming began to clarify into more than an unidentifiable jumble of words. Resisting the urge to turn away, he made himself utterly still as he watched the members of his family engage in a flurry of activity.

Tobias Snape had cornered their mother and was yelling at her, Severus in a chokehold against his chest. He was pointing vaguely at Persephone, who was standing silently with shorn locks of her hair in her hands. Severus was grasping wildly at his father's arm, trying to break free. Their mother was crying, screaming back at her husband, trying to say that it was for the girl's own good, she spent too much time looking at herself in the mirror, she was vain and had to be taught humility, and she was answered harshly with a slap across the face than made her crumple onto the floor, sobbing. Tobias whirled Severus around, taking his shoulders in his hands and shaking him violently, asking, "Why didn't you stop her, damn you? You little bastard, why didn't you stop that woman from maiming your sister?"

He raised his hand to strike Severus across the face and suddenly Persephone sprang to life, leaping toward him and pulling at his hand, shouting, "Father! Look, I can make it come back, I can make it long again, Papa, look!"

Severus leapt at her, pushing her aside harshly and getting between her and their father, "No, Father, she's lying, she can't make it grow back, it's my fault, it's my fault!"  
Their father knocked Severus to the floor where he landed close to his sister, and they made eye contact. As the man proceeded to pick up a cane and hit his son across the back and legs, the two siblings held their eye contact. Suddenly, instead of the dingy room, they were on a cliff, overlooking the ocean, and dolphins were playing in the water below them, skipping on their tails over the waves. "Do you know why they do that, Sev?" he could hear her whispering to him faintly, and he heard his whispered answer to her, "No, why?"

"Because they can."

They exchanged smiles and linked hands, watching the dolphins together for a few moments more, before the water faded and all was quiet except for the sound of their mother sobbing, and the sound of a slamming door. Slowly the room came back into view and Severus got onto his hands and knees, pulled his sister to him and stood stiffly, carrying her to her room and collapsing beside her on her tiny bed. She looked up just long enough to wave her hand at the door, ensuring that they would not be bothered again that night.  
The scene faded again, and Severus was sitting beside his sister, watching her hair as it lengthened to its prior state. His voice was strained when he spoke. "Seph. Where were we?"

"Far."

He winced and stretched his legs out. "How?"

Persephone leaned against her brother and rested her head on his shoulder. "It's … hard to explain. I've been there, though, with the skeleton man, and that's how I was able to take you with me, in my mind."

Severus sat perfectly still while he listened to her, and for a long while after. "I've read about it. It's called occulmency, but it's very advanced."

"The skeleton man taught me, and how to shield my thoughts, if I have to. To keep people out of my mind, I mean. I can teach you."

"Does the skeleton man, what does he think about …"

Persephone glanced up at him. "About dark arts? What are dark arts?"

Severus frowned. "Curses, hexes. Some potions, I suppose, would be dark. And don't do that, don't look into my mind if I don't know. Please."

Persephone raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "I don't think he thinks in dark or light. I think he thinks mostly about what will get the job done."

Severus smiled. "He sounds like a Slytherin."

"He says that no one is all good, or all bad, and that there is no justice, in the end, only him." She raised her head and stared off into space, "In the end, the choices you make determine your worth. Choices are never good or bad, they just are. It's the reason behind the choices that tell you what a man is made of." That's what he said once. I don't know what it means. Only, make good choices." She paused, then pointed out, just to clarify, "And I asked him about girls, and he said girls, too."

Severus chuckled and grimaced again. Even when she was being extremely smart, she was, at heart, a seven year old girl, and it made him glad. "What sorts of things do you do with him, Persephone?"

"Oh, we talk, mostly, and sometimes he teaches me things, like blocking my thoughts, or looking into someone else's, and he helps me learn how to control things. If I'm not careful, I can make everything bloom, or everything wilt. And I can see, if I try, but I don't understand what is real, and what is now, and what isn't. He's trying to help me to learn how."

"Why?"

"Because he says I could go mad if I don't know how to control my powers, long before I have a chance to get to Hogwarts. "

Severus considered this and decided to let it go. "Could he do something about Father?"

"I don't know. He just says that I mustn't."

Severus frowned and nodded, trying to make sense of these new bits of information, before drifting off to sleep and out of sight of the grown Snape.


End file.
